# Public security bureau (China)

A public security bureau (PSB; Chinese: 公安局; pinyin: gōng'ānjú) of a city or county, or public security department (PSD; Chinese: 公安厅; pinyin: Gōng'āntīng) of a province or autonomous region, in the People's Republic of China refers to a government office essentially acting as a police station or a local or provincial police; the smallest police stations are called police posts (Chinese: 派出所; pinyin: pàichūsuǒ).

## Overview

PSB/PSD agencies act as the main civilian police agency of the city/province they are in.
Other duties include residence registration ("hukou") and internal and external migration matters, such as the registration of temporary residents (including both foreign and domestic visitors).
The system of public security bureaus is administered by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), which co-ordinates the work of provincial public security departments that are also answerable to the local governments and provincial party secretaries.
PSBs located in each province are jointly supervised by the central government as well as provincial governments, an arrangement that is intended to prevent corruption and unchecked influence by provincial general secretaries.
Provincial public security bureaus in turn administer county or district level public security sub-bureaus and branch bureaus, which perform a role similar to larger police stations.
The lowest level outposts are police posts, which perform duties similar to of small local police stations.
Most major Chinese cities have a PSB assigned to deal with local security needs. Each province, municipality and autonomous region has a provincial-level public security department or municipal PSB to deal with provincial security issues.
The PSB system does not apply to the special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong, as they have their own police forces, the Hong Kong Police Force and the Public Security Police Force of Macau, respectively.

### Expressway Patrol Public Security Bureaus

In China some provinces, including Sichuan have a separate Expressway Patrol Public Security Bureau which is under the administration of provincial Public Security Departments, however in most provinces highway patrol is under municipal traffic police.

## Relations with the MSS

The network of public security bureaus and the Ministry of Public Security should not be confused with the separate but parallel networks of state security bureaus/state security departments, administered at the national level by the Ministry of State Security (MSS).
The MSS is responsible for external and internal intelligence, and performing a "secret police" or security police role responsible for preemptive response to 'mass incidents' (Chinese terminology for protests or social disturbances) and internal security.
The two systems are administratively separate, although at local levels they co-operate to a large extent and often share resources and internal security bureaus are structured as units or departments within public security bureaus (PSBs) to allow for closer and more effective integrated operations and cooperation as needed.

## Controversies

In 2016, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Public Security Department signed a partnership agreement with Huawei.
In 2019, the same PSD and its subordinate municipal PSBs were sanctioned by the U.S. Department of State for their role in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs.
In 2020, the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the Xinjiang PSD under the Global Magnitsky Act.
In October 2022, various news outlets reported that the MPS had opened clandestine police stations overseas.